


The Bloodied Cards : 피 묻은 카드

by hicstans



Series: Family Planning [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 00:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hicstans/pseuds/hicstans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set straight after The Avengers. The person who greets the Avengers when they return to the Helicarrier is...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bloodied Cards : 피 묻은 카드

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [피 묻은 카드](https://archiveofourown.org/works/453796) by [hicstans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hicstans/pseuds/hicstans). 



> Translation by 사은(river_deep )  
> I love you, my dear friend!
> 
> Gen, but if you put on slash goggles, you may see Clint/Coulson or Steve/Coulson, and even Tony/Coulson.

After capturing Loki, everyone returned to the SHIELD headquarters for the time being. There was no need to linger since the crisis was over, but each had some things to wrap up, and it was hard for them to move without taking a rest.

When they stepped into the headquarters, a good-natured looking bald man greeted them.

“Good work. Why don’t you take a shower and rest first, since the director is occupied with something at the moment…”

“How come it’s you, Agent Sitwell? What happened to Coulson?”

Clint asked, smiling. Everyone apart from him froze.

“Well…….”

Sitwell looked a bit awkward. The Avengers just looked at each other.

“Um… Natasha?” asked Steve.

“The thing is… I had a separate order telling me not to tell Clint…”

“What is it?”

Clint looked at the Avengers, and at Natasha.

“What didn’t you tell me? Did Coulson get badly injured or something?”

After saying so, Clint thought that it would explain why Coulson didn’t come to greet them, but won’t explain this very uncomfortable atmosphere.

He looked at Agent Sitwell.

“Well……”

When Clint took a step towards him, the agent took a step back.

“What happened to Coulson?”

“Coulson was killed. By Loki.” Steve replied.

Clint quickly turned around and faced him.

“That can’t be… who’d checked it?”

“Fury himself,” replied Tony.

“You know, Barton, I know it’s painful for you but denying it isn’t going to change anything. And…“

Clint had already turned and was running. No one asked where he was going since that was just obvious.

 

 

“Director Fury!!”

The bridge door opened and Clint rushed in. Fury walked up to him, as if he was expecting him.

“Agent Barton.”

“Sir, about Coulson…”

The door opened once more and the rest of the Avengers rushed in. Natasha grabbed Clint’s arm.

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“If you kick up a fuss here, it will affect the navigation. Why don’t we move to someplace else?”

Fury spoke calmly and walked past them towards the door. Tony gripped his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t dodge the issue here. It’s not like it’ll get better with time.”

Fury looked down at Tony’s hand, then shook his arm free. He turned his back to the door and stood looking at them.

“So, what do you want to know?”

“Did Coulson really get killed? By Loki?” shouted Clint.

Fury answered simply.

“No.”

For a moment no one could say anything.

“No?” shouted Tony.

“You mean that was a lie?” Steve also shouted.

“Yes. Since you fought each other let alone cooperate and fight the enemy, I needed a push. I thought that was just right.”

“Just right…?” muttered Bruce, aghast. Steve and Tony pounced on Fury with clenched fists.

“Stop!”

If Fury said that, no one would have listened. But the owner of that voice which rang out with the sound of the opening door was,

“Phil!”

Clint ran up to him. Coulson was sat on an electric wheelchair so Clint couldn’t hug him; instead he crouched down next to Coulson and look up to him.

“Are you okay? So you aren’t dead?”

Coulson smiled at him.

“Hey, Coulson. Glad to see you alive, but this guy deserves a punch, you know?”

Tony put in. Next to him, Steve also nodded.

“For once Stark is right.”

Fury agreed also.

“It’s something I’d prepared for the moment I made the decision to lie about your life and death, so don’t try to stop them.”

“Guess using weapons aren’t allowed.”

Natasha clenched and unclenched her hands a couple of times.

“Is that why you told me to not tell Clint? You couldn’t lie to him, at least, about Coulson, is that it?”

“Not exactly, but I thought it might be a little cruel to visit him for that purpose when he didn’t hear about it in the first place, being out cold.”

“You could have told me then, you know, even if you didn’t tell the others!”

“I really think we should give the old man a beating.”

Tony held up his fist. Coulson manoeuvred his wheelchair and got between them.

“Hey, Mr Agent? There’s really no need for you to take his side, you know? A man like him.”

“Then hit me first, Mr Stark.”

To that, Tony, Steve, and even Natasha couldn’t do anything.

“But……”

“The director didn’t lie. My heart had really stopped, and I was really dead for about one or two minutes.”

“And while you were fighting, the emergency surgery was successfully completed. He had rushed here the moment the anaesthetics had worn off.”

Fury provided further explanation.

“Then you shouldn’t be out and about like this!” shouted Clint.

“Couldn’t be helped. It won’t do to have you turn the director into a pincushion.”

Clint buried his face in his hands. Coulson turned to Tony and Steve.

“Also you did need a reason to come together, and I did think it would be worth it if my death could make that happen. In factor, it might be truer to say I thought it’d be better to die if you couldn’t unite.”

“Um, I don’t know how to say this but, did you trust us that much?” asked Bruce.

“Loki could’ve been stopped by other means, though it might have caused more damage. Even if it wasn’t, surely we wouldn’t have fought amongst ourselves with that kind of obvious threat in front of us……”

“Whether you fight each other or not is not the issue here, Dr Banner,” sighed Coulson.

“Who do you think is going to clean up after the Avengers from now on?”

Everyone looked at each other. Tony looked sideways at Coulson, slyly.

“So what you’re saying is, it’s hard enough with just me, so it was better to die than having to look after a group of people as bad as me fighting all the time – is that it?”

Coulson nodded.

“I don’t want to condemn everyone as being troublemakers as bad as Mr Stark, but that is the heart of the matter.”

“Jeez,” Natasha laughed.

Steve and Bruce stared at Tony.

“….Anyway, it’s awesome to see Coulson alive, but are you human, Director? It was not just anybody, it was Coulson! How can you see him die right in front of you and plan to use it!” shouted Clint.

“That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

“Clint, I told him to do it.”

Fury and Coulson spoke at the same time.

“And it was okay to lie to us, huh,” Tony grumbled.

“Urgh, if I think about how bad I felt when I saw that bloodied cards, I can even hit you, invalid or not, let alone Fury…”

“Cards?” asked Coulson.

Tony and Steve exchanged looks.

“You know… those cards of yours… you wanted me to sign,” said Steve.

Coulson’s eyes widened.

“What, what about those cards?”

“What do you mean, what about them, Fury took those bloodied cards from your suit pocket and threw it right in front of our eyes…”

“You believed that?”

It was Clint who cut Tony’s uncharacteristically unsure words.

“Jesus, are you all idiots? What does your brain do?”

The two who were berated without knowing why wanted to protest, but Clint shouted before they could.

“There’s no way in hell Phil would be carrying around his precious-than-life Captain America vintage cards in somewhere like his suit pocket!! You guys should’ve sussed it from just that!”

Tony’s mouth hung open.

“That is…… now that I think of it………”

“You okay, Coulson? Get hold yourself! Phil!”

While that was going on, Natasha was calling out to Coulson, since she couldn’t shake him, currently hurt, to bring him back.

“My……. Captain cards…….. soaked in blood……..”

“There is a little blood on it, but it’s like a keepsake from the war, you… know, shall I sign them now? No, I will do it! Please let me do it!!”

Steve was near begging now, but Coulson’s eyes were already glazed over and weren’t looking at him.

“It took me several years to get all the Classics and the Collector’s versions… I couldn’t attend collector’s conventions or trading fairs since my bloody job won’t let me have holidays so I had to buy them at eBay, paying hefty premium fees, too, and had to abuse my power to chase down the owners to buy some of them…….”

“Um, Coulson is losing it. Isn’t this a bit serious?”

“Hey, Coulson? If you’re talking about premium rates, I can pay hundred or thousand times, so come on, hey? I’ll get the exact same set for you, so come back!”

Tony tried desperately to console him. It didn’t reach Coulson.

“The ones with photos are limited editions with serial numbers, and there aren’t any more collectors who are going to die any time soon…….”

“Die……?”

Tony turned his imploring eyes to others. Getting limited edition cards people won’t relinquish before they die was an area beyond his means.

“Hey, hey, Fury? Banner? Do something here, I feel like there is some kind of white thing floating above Coulson’s head!”

“Well, um, we have the real thing here, so can’t we do something with that?”

Bruce pointed at Steve. Steve hadn’t the time to get mad at being called a ‘thing’.

“But how?”

Natasha grabbed Steve and threw him at Coulson. Though flustered, he half-kneeled in front of Coulson’s wheelchair and held his hand in both hands.

“Coulson, we can always take new photos. Why don’t we take one together? How about taking a picture together and I sign it and you frame it?”

“Just give him a hug already,” Tony egged him.

“Don’t you dare!” Clint shouted in hushed tones.

“Think about why he had to fake being dead at first place……”

“Wait, are you saying it’s our fault? It’s Loki who stabbed him, and the person who got Loki out of that prison is…”

“Are you going to kill Coulson again?” said Fury.

Clint, Tony, and all the others who were going to say something all clamped their mouth shut.

“Oh.”

Startled by sudden silence, Coulson came back to himself.

“Coulson?”

“Captain.”

Steve felt a bit relieved.

“Um, it’s really bad about the cards, but we dealt with Loki and everyone’s okay. So can you stop being mad?”

Steve gave Coulson a desperate look.

“……If Captain says so.”

The Avengers, and Bruce, who wasn’t directly related, all breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s have Fury get the cards together again,” Tony saw his chance and changed his tune.

“Since Fury is the greatest spy ever, he’ll have no trouble getting hold of unavailable limited editions and stuff, even, aren’t I right?”

Tony tried to pat Fury’s shoulder. Fury grabbed that hand and twisted it ever so slightly.

“By the way, director.”

“Yes?”

Coulson was looking at Fury reproachfully.

“How could you treat those cards so……”

“Well, you did agree that telling these idiots you’ve died would provide suitable stimulation, didn’t you?”

“I told you it’s okay to use my life, not my cards!”

Tony was looking at Fury with shining eyes. It’s not every day you get to see Fury flustered and breaking out in cold sweat. It was the greatest shame of his life that he can’t tell JARVIS to record this scene.

‘I am so boosting the durability of my armour so it can function properly after the battle.’

“You can’t deny the end result is great though, can you?”

Coulson looked at Fury, then at the Avengers, then at the Fury again and nodded.

“You are right, director. I misjudged for a moment.”

He operated his wheelchair, moved away, and positioned himself next to the door.

“No matter what the aim was, lying to the members will prevent a trusting relationship to form. An irregular measure needs to be followed with a proper consequence. Everyone, please carry on with what you were going to do before I interfered.”

“……Coulson?”

“I will gladly follow that order.” Tony grinned and made a fist.

“I thought you didn’t follow any orders?” was what Steve said, but he was also taking a fighting stance, making fists.

“I changed my mind. You definitely follow the right orders.”

“That is an excellent opinion, considering it’s from Stark.”

Natasha flexed her muscles.

“Since you were prepared, I guess we don’t need to pull back, huh?”

Clint also took a stance.

Bruce was indecisive for a moment, and stepped back. It was 4 versus 1, with all the so-called superheroes on one side. There was no need for him to join in too.

‘Well, they won’t kill him.’

Maybe.

\----------------------------

 

After Coulson returned to his hospital room, told to take absolute rest and was isolated from the outer world for a few days, he received a bunch of get-well presents.

There were the usual ones such as flowers and fruit baskets, as well as a framed portrait of himself signed ‘To a dear comrade and friend Phil Coulson, Steve Rogers’, also a pack of Captain America trading cards inside a waterproof protection case – there was a memo which said: ‘Only managed to get hold of these, will send more as soon as I get them. TS’ – and on the card accompanying the fruit basket was this message: ‘Let’s take a team photo when you get discharged. From the Avengers.’

Coulson smiled and put the frame on the table next to the bed.

Babysitting for the avengers might be more fun than he thought.

**Author's Note:**

> I bet you a request-a-fic ticket that Coulson will think ‘Of course these guys won’t behave properly’ within the month he gets out of the hospital.  
> To fans, their collections are more important than their lives! Fury should get a beating! He absolutely deserves it!!  
> I was going to name this ‘What is Precious to a Fanboy’ but thought that would give the ending away, but I guess the ending was pretty obvious anyway.  
> The reason Thor is not there is because he needs to watch(=be with) Loki. Don’t you dare leave him, Thor.


End file.
